Under State law, North Carolina school districts are not permitted to start prior to August 28th for the 2023/2024 school year. The actual rule is that school cannot start earlier than the Monday closest to August 26th, which happens to be the 28th this year.
While most school districts are complying this year, 15, including my own district Surry County Schools, are starting earlier than the law permits. SCS is starting August 10th. Mount Airy City Schools is starting August 14th. Elkin City Schools is starting August 16. So all three districts in the county are starting substantially early, SCS fully 2 1/2 weeks early.
The number of districts is expected to grow next year.
The reality is that colleges run on an earlier schedule and many districts, such as Surry, run early college programs that require school start earlier.
The State has no mechanism to actually enforce the law, so districts can start early pretty much with impunity.
This whole school start date thing has been an issue around the country in recent years and it is finally starting to ratchet up here.
